Of
345 species at risk in Canada, more than 160 have waited far too long for
recovery strategies. Thanks to a recent federal court decision, four luckier
ones are finally getting overdue plans detailing steps needed to save and
protect them, including identifying habitat they need to survive. But to make
it happen, environmental groups including the David Suzuki Foundation, with the
help of Ecojustice lawyers, had to take the federal government to court.
It wasn't the first time we’ve gone to court to protect wildlife.

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In
what the judge called "the tip of the iceberg," the court found an enormous
systemic problem in the two ministries responsible for protecting endangered
and threatened wildlife. Both the environment and fisheries ministers broke the
law for the species in question by allowing multi-year delays in meeting
deadlines required under the Species at Risk Act, adopted in 2002.

This
legal win is good news for Pacific humpback whales, marbled murrelets, Nechako
white sturgeon and southern mountain caribou. But their fate and that of many
other federally recognized endangered and threatened species remains in
jeopardy. Court victories are just a start. It will take political will to
ensure species and their habitats get the protection they need.

The
yellow-breasted chat, northern goshawk and spotted turtle are just some of the
endangered species that continue to wait, some for as long as seven years now.
The eastern whip-poor-will, known for its distinct nocturnal cries, struggles
to survive pollution, pesticides and climate change, while the grey fox and
prairie loggerhead shrike confront agricultural and pesticide threats as they
contend with recovery strategy delays.

When
plans come this late, impacts of large development projects such as the
Northern Gateway pipeline aren’t adequately considered before projects are
approved. We’ll never know if the Joint Review Panel's recommendation to
support the Enbridge project would have been different had it considered
recovery impacts on threatened species such as the humpback whale.

Recovery
strategies are not the only slow-moving part of the species-at-risk process.
Just getting status assessments for species may take up to five years. Five
more years could be required for government to decide whether to accept these
scientific assessments and give species protection. Then, legal timelines kick
in, followed by recovery strategies, many delayed, and still more years for
action plans, which have no timelines, to take effect. For killer
whales, whose overdue action plan was just released, the process has taken
about 13 years and a court challenge from the David Suzuki Foundation and
others, which concluded government was failing to protect the whale’s critical
habitat. Many species have been waiting even longer.